My last post of the Year

I can't believe there is only hours left in the year. I'm glad to hear that some have had a good year, but I'll be honest I'm still getting use to this move and I'm afraid it will for awhile. I keep telling myself that we both prayed about it and that we both felt like it was the right thing. I am thankful though that Branon is still working and hasn't lost his job in which we thought might happen back in August. I am hopeful for 2011.

December went by fast which I'm glad because I'm not huge into the holidays. Wish I was like my mom she always made everything so much fun but I'm so much more like my dad. I feel sorry for my kids but I know they will still survive. Here are some pictures of what we did. For Christmas eve we had Branon's brother Haldon and his family over. Our kids get along so well and had fun playing.

Jenna got into a lot of trouble this month. Here is a picture of her getting into my makeup but it could have been so much worse. About a month ago or so she got into my neighbors make up and totally destroyed it. Wish I had a picture of that one. The other day she got into the garbage that had the fireplace ashes and put them all over in the basement.

I went down to Tuacan in St. George with my friend Brandy and her kids. We were going to go see the nativity but they canceled due to the rain. However they still had Santa Clause which was one of the best I have ever seen. Jonas was a little confused as you can see in his picture because he said it wasn't the real Santa Clause. He told me "Mom, I've seen the real Santa clause in Alaska at the North Pole and that is not him." I think he was confused because this Santa could pull off being the real Santa. This year all my kids believe and I'm hoping that will be the same for next year but Jonas is a very smart kid and might figure that out next year, and it doesn't help if his friends know. I believe my sister told me around Jonas's age.

This is how good Santa was because he even got Jenna to sit on his lap without screaming.

Well off to my friends house to party and hope that 2011 is a good year!

Oh Jonas said something really funny a couple days after Christmas that I wanted to share. As you can see is two front teeth are missing and so I kept singing that song to him. He said, "I thought I was going to get my two front teeth for Christmas." He said it so seriously I want to die laughing!

Christmas 2010

With Love Blue Christmas Card

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I'm headed for some major drama

I have to admit when I was pregnant with Jonas I wanted him to be a girl really bad. After we found out that he was a boy a decided I could live with that and was excited when I looked at all the plus's of having a boy. No having to do hair, No cute cloths(I love t-shirts and jeans, don't have to worry about looking cute), and no drama. After 7 years I realize boys do have drama but after having two girls it's a little different. This morning I was dropping off Bella and Jonas at school, and Bella had one of her moments where she cries for no reason at all. On our way to school she found some sunglasses and put them on, mind you it was raining so she didn't need them. I should have said something but I let her keep them on and figured she would take them off when she went into class. Well right before she was about to walk into the school she runs back to the car to give me the sunglasses and starts crying. I asked her why she was crying and she said "I don't know." I told her to calm down and there is no reason to cry. Bella- "I can't stop crying" I look at her as calm as I can without laughing or yelling told her that I'm not getting out of the car and that she was holding up all the cars, and lucky she was able to pull herself together. Bella does a lot of crying and sometimes for no reason at all, and Jenna does a lot more screaming. I don't know how people do it with a family full of girls! I have been horrible at taking pictures lately but here is one of a few I have of her crying.

I should say I would never ever trade my girls. Even though they may cry and scream they tell me all the time how much they love me and gives the best hugs. It makes it all worth dealing with all the drama. I guess I should be able to handle it since they do learn from their mother!

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I'm getting so excited for Christmas, and can't believe it's around the corner. Every year we have been taking family pictures and sending out cards since we have been married. It's fun to look back at those Christmas cards and to see how much we have changed and grown. This year I'm more excited because I think our pictures turned out really cute and can't wait to get cards out this year and share them with you. I usually use Shutterfly and came across this amazing deal which I'm excited to share with you. Everyone can use 50 free holiday cards, right? I know we could this year. I feel like Shutterfly every year comes up with the cutest cards and they make is so hard to decide. I love there colors and designs! Here are some of my favorite ones:








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October Fun

October was a busy month but a lot of fun! We were gone every weekend except Halloween. The first weekend we went and saw my oldest brother Eric run the St. George Marathon. He did it last year too and he makes me want to do it. I ran a half over the summer and decided that was enough for me but then seeing him again thinks I could do it. Although I'm glad I didn't do it this year because it was one of the hottest ever. Since he was so fast I don't think it effected him though. Next weekend we again went to St. George because Branon's mom had a Family Reunion/90Th Birthday party for Grandpa Trane. Branon's parents from Alaska were down so it was nice to see them and nice to get to know that side of the family a little better. The 3rd weekend we again went to St. George when all of my siblings got together besides my brother Eric and his family. We had a lot of fun! We went to Jumping Jacks, which is one of my kids favorite place. You get a nice work out chasing the kids all around. We also went hiking which is one of my favorite things to do. Fourth weekend we went to visit my brother Mark in Colorado which will get it's own post(when I get around to it because it's already taken me so long to do this post). Fifth weekend was Halloween in which we did the ward trunk-r-treat. Here are some pictures of our FUN!

My nephews Myles, Hunter, and Josh

Jenna taking a ride on Grandpa Rawlings on our hike.

The Rawlings Crew

This is one of my favorite pictures of Bella

Grandpa with the girls

My nephews who are the cutest two year old twins ever, and the my brother Mark as the cutest 4 year old twin boys.

Jenna loves Jumping Jacks and I love to watch her!

Grandpa Rawlings also had fun watching and playing with his grand kids.

Trane Reunion. We had a very yummy lunch at the Church. His brothers that live in Alaska are missing, but we still had fun.

This is at Branon's brother Haldon's house making Halloween sugar cookies. Whenever my kids can make a mess they are all about it.

I got to go with Bella's class to the pumpkin patch. It was fun to watch her pick out her pumpkin. There was this boy in her class that said, "look there is a Cinderella pumpkin", and then Bella spent a few minutes trying to find it. Then finally asked if they were all Cinderella pumpkins. Sure!

Jonas and his cousin Kodiak

Persistent

That is how I describe Jonas, is persistent. When he has his mind on something he keeps persisting. For example when he wanted to catch frogs he wouldn't let it go. His dad tried a few times taking him up to the mountains and no such luck. He still wouldn't let it go. Finally I had enough, called a friend to ask if she knew where a good place to catch frogs around here. As you can see I was the coolest mom ever and we found that place. Once caught, he doesn't need to go hunting for frogs anymore. It's kind of like that with fishing too. Keeps persisting to go and once he catches a fish he doesn't bother us anymore. Sometimes it drives me crazy but I did have a lot of fun catching frogs with him, and watching Jenna getting muddy from head to toe.

With Jonas being the only boy he loves to be with his cousins. I have two brothers that have boys, and Branon's brothers that have boys around his age so he is in luck. However the girls aren't on my side they are surrounded by boys with my nieces being much older than them. The picture above his with my brother Marks boys and his only girl Lexie. Unfortunately they don't live close by but we will being seeing them in a couple of weeks that he can hardly wait.

Kindergarten and 1st grade was very hard to get him to school but I feel very blessed that he has a wonderful teacher Mr. Wilken that he loves, and it helps that he sits by his friend too. He had such a wonderful teacher last year too but I think it's helped him have a man teacher.

I love him so much, and couldn't imagine life without him. He for the most part his so good with his sisters. He is very kind, sweet, and loves to have fun!

Not afraid

Jenna is not afraid to ......
get dirty
laugh
scream
touch insects
make me pull my hair out
make me love her

You know there are those kids who if they see an ant they scream, no not her. Jenna likes to squish them. This tomato worm that she is holding she would not stop squishing it at the parade. I finally had to take it away from her when she was scaring the other children with it by chasing them. I once found one of those in her mouth. I know disgusting. Bella's thing was dirt and I thought that was bad but worms gross! She is not even scared of bee's. Jenna has been stung a couple of times because she tried holding them. I can't turn my back on her for one second or she gets into trouble. She loves to make a mess. But as much trouble and mess she makes, she is so fun to have. She is so silly! When you told her to say "grandpa" forever she would say grandma. Now she can't stop saying "grandpa" and then laughs every time she says it. I finally got one that will eat my cooking where the other two have issues. I love her so much and am so glad to have her around even though there are those moments when she makes me want to pull my hair out.

Heart-breaker!

She loves to dress up, not quite sure what she is suppose to be!

Bella was in the parade that we had on Labor day with her Dance team

After looking through my pictures there are so many things I need to blog about, but this post you can only guess is about Bella. Sometimes I have no idea where she comes from. She is very observant, which is nothing like her mother. We were in the car and there was this song was on the radio. I don't know what the song title is but it went something like this, "I'm just going to break your heart." This is how our little conversation went.

Bella: Does that mean you are going to die
Me: No it means you are sad
Bella: Does that mean they are going to rip your heart out.
Me: No it means when a guy is mean to a girl.
Bella: I don't understand
Me: It means when a prince is mean to a princess and he is going to break her heart. You know how when you are in love with some one and it means that the prince is going to break the princess heart.
Bella: Oh, so do I need to find a prince that will always me nice to me!
Me: Yes!

Okay I really wanted to say good luck in finding such a prince. She comes up with some things that I would never think of. Branon thinks I have turn her into a girlie girl but I don't think so. I tell him girls naturally like princesses and pink. Okay the Internet is acting weird so I'm going to try to post this before it is completely gone.

Bella's 1st day of Kindergarten

Bella's teacher Mrs. Skougaard

Her class

Bella's friend Ashlynn

Some of her friends from Joy school

Bella's official 1st day of school was August 31. I meant to post this then but has been a slacker. She has morning Kindergarten which means we start at 8 am. For those that know me, you know I'm not a morning person, so I thought it would be brutal. I was really hoping for afternoon but now I'm glad she is in the morning. The first couple of mornings were wonderful there early but now it can be pretty hectic, but I don't think they have been late yet.

First day of School

Here is Jonas with his craft that they made. They are going to put their picture in it and hang them around the school.

The first day of school was yesterday but I tried to post and of course the internet wanted to not work while trying to upload pictures. Summer went by way too fast and was not excited about school being here because I am not a planned/schedule person. Now that it's here I'm very excited and can't wait until Bella starts Kindergarten on August 31. Parowan elementary makes the first day really fun. They have the parents come the first 2 hours and have them help do a craft, teachers put on a kit, and then they go out on the football field and have all the kids put on a little skit. The theme this year is "Start your Engines" so they made it around Lightening McQueen. The teachers made their own cars and at the very end did a little race. I thought it was really cute.

Even though Bella doesn't start Kindergarten until later they still had them come to be part of the morning events.

Here are the teachers racing!

You can see how thrilled Jonas is to start school.